“Yes.” The word is half moan, half demand. “All of it. I want all of it.”
I grip the hem of her shift and pull it up and over her head in one smooth motion. She stands before me in nothing but moonlight, pale skin glowing, her body a landscape I want to explore with my hands and mouth and tongue.
“Fuck.” The curse escapes before I can stop it. “You’re so damn beautiful.”
She reaches for me, tugging at my shirt. “Off. I want to see you too.”
I strip it away, baring the scars the curse has left—purple veins crawling beneath my skin, marks that will never fade. She doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t look away. Just traces her fingers along the lines of damage, her touch achingly gentle.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not right now.” Not with her touching me. Not with her looking at me like I’m something worth wanting instead of something to fear. “Right now, all I feel is you.”
TWENTY
ZYPHON
Ilift her, and she wraps her legs around my waist.
The heat of her presses against my stomach as I carry her to the bed. I lay her down on the sheets and follow her down, settling between her thighs, my mouth finding hers again. She arches beneath me, her breasts pressing against my chest, her hips rocking up to meet mine.
I pull back to look at her—hair spread across my pillow, lips swollen from my kisses, chest heaving with ragged breaths. Her eyes are dark with want, her skin flushed, her body open and waiting.
“I’m going to take my time with you.” I lower my head to her breast, closing my mouth over one peaked nipple. She gasps, her back bowing off the bed. “I’m going to make you feel so good, you forget everything except my name.”
I worship her breasts with my mouth—licking, sucking, biting gently until she’s writhing beneath me, incoherent sounds spilling from her lips. Then I kiss my way down her stomach, feeling her muscles clench beneath my mouth, feeling her breath catch as I move lower.
“Zyphon—“ Her voice breaks when I settle between her thighs. “Oh gods?—“
I spread her open with my thumbs and lick a long, slow stripe through her center. She tastes like fire and honey, and the sound she makes—desperate, broken, needy—is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.
I devour her. There’s no other word for it. Licking into her heat, sucking her clit, fucking her with my tongue while she writhes and moans above me. Her thighs clamp around my head. Her fingers grip my hair hard enough to sting. And when I slide two fingers inside her, crooking them to find the spot that makes her scream?—
She shatters. Her whole body convulses, her walls clenching around my fingers, her voice breaking on my name. I work her through it, gentling my touch as she trembles, pressing soft kisses to her inner thighs while she comes down.
“That was—“ She can barely form words. “I can’t?—“
“We’re not done.” I crawl back up her body, positioning myself at her entrance. I’m so hard it hurts, my cock throbbing with the need to be inside her. “Not even close.”
I push into her slowly, giving her time to adjust. She’s so wet, so tight, so fucking perfect that I have to stop halfway and breathe through the urge to slam home. Her hands grip my shoulders, her legs wrap around my waist, and when I finally sink all the way in?—
Her fire erupts.
Shadow-flame pours from her skin, not burning but warming, wrapping around us both in ribbons of dark light. My shadows rise to meet it, curling around her fire, threading through it, the two powers tangling in the space between our bodies.
“Move.” She digs her heels into my ass, urging me deeper. “Zyphon, please, I need?—“
I give her what she needs.
I pull out and thrust back in, setting a rhythm that’s anything but gentle. Hard and deep and relentless, the way I’ve fantasized. She meets me stroke for stroke, her hips rising to take me deeper, her nails raking down my back hard enough to draw blood.
The pleasure builds between us, inexorable. Our powers tangle and surge in time with our bodies, shadow and flame moving together, amplifying every sensation until I can barely tell where I end and she begins.
“Harder.” She bites my shoulder, and the sting of pain mixes with pleasure until I can’t separate them. “Fuck me harder.”
I flip her over, pulling her hips up, and drive into her from behind. She cries out, fisting the sheets, pushing back to meet each thrust. The new angle lets me go deeper, hit spots that make her whole body shake.
“Touch yourself.” My voice comes out rough, commanding. “I want to feel you come around my cock.”
